Ballad of The Mad Trapper from Rat River, story of Albert Johnson, the mad trapper who led the Northwest Mounted Police on a 48 day manhunt through the frozen Yukon in 1931-32, song by Dan LaRocque, The Mad Trapper from Rat River

Original song by Dan LaRocque, tells the epic story of the lone man who inspired a 6 week manhunt through the Arctic under seemingly impossible conditions in 1931-32. An example of our rich Canadian history.

There've been strange things done in the midnight sun long since McGee or 'Grew
Like the hunt begun back in '31 every word of this is true
He was Albert Johnson some men say though no-one knows for sure
But every man who's lived a Yukon day knows of what the man endured

The Mad Trapper from Rat River
The Mad Trapper strong as the Yukon Moon

Well men often fled to the Yukon to escape the conditions back home
to run from the law or a woman a place to disappear and fight your ghosts alone
So it was with cordial intentions brought constables King and Bernard
To welcome this man to the Northlands. They knocked in the quiet woods, but the Mounties were ignored

By the Mad Trapper from Rat River
The Mad Trapper strong as the Yukon Moon

Now the Mounties knew by the chimney's plume there was fire in that shack
and the fresh white snow by the cabin door said if he left he left no track
This was Yukon bush on a clear cold day where a holler rings for miles
So a two day trek to Fort McPherson to check on the cause of this strange denial

Well they asked around, every man in town and from miles of snow beyond
Of this new recruit to a frozen land where the weak don't last for long
They could find no friend or kin who knew this Johnson from away
So two days more to the river's shore and the bunker where he lay

The Mad Trapper from Rat River
The Mad Trapper strong as the Yukon Moon

They arrived at his lonesome pine cabin
Still friendly but wary and calm
they knew he was in there and waiting
One knock on the cabin door one bullet from a madman's gun

A posse of Mounties and trappers
Was rousted once King was returned
With a hole in his chest from the bullet
His Mountie pride had won that his courtesy had earned

Well 48 days in Kansas might not seem like long to you
But he outran man and he outran dogs 6 weeks in '32
In a land where the sun barely cracks the sky at that time of the year
And the cold so fierce it's take your eye just as soon as take your ear

He shouldered up 200 pounds, 200 pounds, they weighed it
They thought they had him once but then he killed again and made it
Not once above 40 odd below and the wind howled like a razor
And the Mounties never far behind and no fire, rest, or peace.

The Mad Trapper from Rat River
The Mad Trapper strong as the Yukon Moon

Till finally he ran out of running grew weary of being their prey
He dropped to his knees, guns ablazing They pumped him full lead, till quietly he lay.

The Mad Trapper from Rat River
The Mad Trapper strong as the Yukon Moon